Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Graham Ricky and I'm from Oakland, New Zealand,
Speaker 1: and I play at Tyre Golf and Country Club. This
Speaker 1: is golf Smart.
Speaker 2: Golf Smarter number four hundred and sixty two, originally published
Speaker 2: on November fourteen, twenty fourteen.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
Speaker 3: insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Speaker 3: Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets old. Our
Speaker 3: interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
Speaker 3: like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 1: If it bothers you that much to card a ninety
Speaker 1: five versus a ninety one, get lessons, It's not about
Speaker 1: the score. I read recently Ben Hogan said before every
Speaker 1: round he knew he was going to have four bad shots. Okay,
Speaker 1: now this is a professional. I kind of go out
Speaker 1: thinking I'm gonna have four good shots, and it just
Speaker 1: is what it is. When I first started playing by
Speaker 1: the rules, my scores went up dramastically, but I knew
Speaker 1: at the end of the day that that was my
Speaker 1: true score, and I could tell people that with accuracy
Speaker 1: and not be ashamed.
Speaker 4: Because that is what I shot.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make me any less of a golfer or
Speaker 1: any better golfer by saying you shot something lower. That's
Speaker 1: kind of one of my pet peeves about that. But
Speaker 1: you have to hit anyhow. Some people drop a ball
Speaker 1: immediately and just hit right away. Actually, the rule book
Speaker 1: says you don't hit right away unless, of course, you're
Speaker 1: the last one teeing off. So if you're first and
Speaker 1: you put yours in the woods, pick up your tea,
Speaker 1: walk back to the bag, let the other three players play,
Speaker 1: and then you can hit your provision.
Speaker 2: Hey, you're standing on my line. Golf Etiquette with Richard Toff.
Speaker 2: This is Golf Smarter. Welcome back to the Golf Smarter podcast. Richard.
Speaker 4: Hey, Fred, it's great to be back.
Speaker 2: It's like you never left a lot of time with
Speaker 2: Golf Smarter.
Speaker 4: Huh yes, every week.
Speaker 2: Well, I get to spend a lot of time with
Speaker 2: your books. Now, thank you, and you got a new one. Congratulations.
Speaker 2: So let's let's recap what the last book was so
Speaker 2: we can promote that.
Speaker 1: First absolutely, please, we'll take you back five years. First,
Speaker 1: my son was graduating eighth grade, getting ready to become
Speaker 1: a big, bad freshman and decided he wanted to be
Speaker 1: on the golf team. So it was a great summer.
Speaker 1: I got to play a lot of.
Speaker 2: Golf, you know, and you've been playing golf all your life.
Speaker 4: I have.
Speaker 1: I had been thirty some years. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: harder to get every weekend off to play golf. But
Speaker 1: I told the wife, you know, I've got to do
Speaker 1: this so that Nicholas can make the team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and excuse and yes, it's very hard, and I
Speaker 2: do acknowledge it is very hard for anybody with young
Speaker 2: children to get out on the golf course on a
Speaker 2: regular basis, very hard unless they drag their kids along exactly.
Speaker 4: So we're out there during that in the day and
Speaker 4: at night.
Speaker 1: I decided to try to read the USGA Rules of Golf.
Speaker 1: I had attempted it once before. As you know, it's
Speaker 1: a very difficult book to get through. No offense to
Speaker 1: the usg you know, that's a legal document and there
Speaker 1: is some legal eaese in there, and it's tough to
Speaker 1: get through even if you read it from cover to
Speaker 1: cover understanding it is a completely different ballgame. So as
Speaker 1: I'm reading the section on tending the flag stick, I
Speaker 1: was mentally transported back to being sixteen myself and the
Speaker 1: first time my dad took me out with him and
Speaker 1: his friends. I was, of course, just elated that the
Speaker 1: old man would take me golfing with his friends. I
Speaker 1: managed to work through the first te jitters, kept my
Speaker 1: driving fairway, and made my way to the green, and
Speaker 1: I'm feeling confident. Now I'm getting ready to settle in
Speaker 1: for a nice round of golf, to pull my weight
Speaker 1: and impress the old man. I'm tending the flag stick.
Speaker 1: He's just off the green and he sculls it and
Speaker 1: it is screaming at the hole. Well, I pulled the
Speaker 1: flagstick out, and he starts yelling for me to put
Speaker 1: it back in because he wants that backboard action.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: Well that doesn't happen, and the ball goes over the hole,
Speaker 1: across the green and down the hill, and what should
Speaker 1: have been a possible birdie ended up being a double bogie.
Speaker 1: And he proceeds to let me know, very verbally, very loud,
Speaker 1: how happy he is that I'm there that day, in
Speaker 1: front of all his friends and everybody on the course.
Speaker 1: So I carried that golf guilt around for three decades
Speaker 1: and as I'm reading that, well, why.
Speaker 2: Do I not believe you that he was so happy
Speaker 2: that he was black ragging about having.
Speaker 1: You thereout air quotes around the happiness.
Speaker 2: Okay, air quotes. I missed the eye out. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I'm blinked.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 4: It was not a very good time.
Speaker 1: I mean, old you were you. I was sixteen, and
Speaker 1: his friends or his friends stepped in and they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, just go ahead to hit another one, and
Speaker 1: you know, don't worry about it and anything. So uh.
Speaker 1: In reading the chapter on flankstick, I realized he was wrong.
Speaker 1: I was right there. You don't get to choose after
Speaker 1: you hit the ball if you want it in or
Speaker 1: pull it out, whatever fits you best.
Speaker 2: So wait, what did he He asked you to tend it? Well,
Speaker 2: or he asked you to pull it?
Speaker 1: Initially, I don't remember if he asked me to tend it,
Speaker 1: but I was standing there with my hand on it,
Speaker 1: and according to the rule book, if somebody is there,
Speaker 1: that is considered tending it. Because he saw me standing there,
Speaker 1: he knew I was going to pull it because my
Speaker 1: hand was on it.
Speaker 2: Okay, so.
Speaker 1: He needed to make that decision before he hit either
Speaker 1: for me, to move away or pull it or get
Speaker 1: ready to pull it after he hits. So it made
Speaker 1: me maybe kind of mad that I had to carry
Speaker 1: that guilt around for three decades.
Speaker 4: And I said, nobody should have to go through this.
Speaker 2: Oh, listen, as any kid, as any adult knows what
Speaker 2: you're going to find something to carry the guilt around
Speaker 2: for decades.
Speaker 4: Yes, I understand.
Speaker 1: So it became my mission at that point to help
Speaker 1: educate people so that this didn't happen to somebody else.
Speaker 1: And as I'm reading the rule book, each time I
Speaker 1: go through a section, I've got a memory of something
Speaker 1: that mirrored what they're trying to explain. And it just
Speaker 1: occurred to me that I could just put all of
Speaker 1: these memories into one long and rather painful round of
Speaker 1: golf and explain the rules in a very lighthearted manner
Speaker 1: that's easy to understand. And that's how the golf rules
Speaker 1: idea started.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the first book, so the first book we
Speaker 2: were talking about golf rules is the rules.
Speaker 4: It is on stroke play.
Speaker 2: Stroke play rules. Okay, and now you've decided you're going
Speaker 2: to go and do a series on these. And the
Speaker 2: second one here is on etiquette.
Speaker 1: Correct and actually That idea came about very soon after
Speaker 1: the original idea to write the golf rules on stroke play,
Speaker 1: you know, because I said to myself, well, that's just
Speaker 1: one part of the game, so we're going to need
Speaker 1: to do etiquette. And I also have plans for the
Speaker 1: third book next summer to be on match play. Okay,
Speaker 1: so well we'll hit all three components of the game.
Speaker 1: And so I started writing, I'm reading through the rules
Speaker 1: of golf. I need to make sure I know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. So I sign up for USGA Rules School, which,
Speaker 1: for those that don't know, is four days of intense
Speaker 1: rules discussion. You're talking nine to ten hours a day
Speaker 1: just going through that little book, and the last day
Speaker 1: is a four hour exam on the rules of golf,
Speaker 1: and most people don't finish the exam in that time.
Speaker 1: It's grueling. Wow. And to make matters worse at the
Speaker 1: end of the day is if you're not tired enough.
Speaker 1: Most everybody goes back to their hotel room and studies
Speaker 1: for the next day. You should see these booklets that
Speaker 1: everyone has, and they're all thumbnailed and little stickies everywhere
Speaker 1: for each rule number and notes, and there's highlighting in them.
Speaker 1: I didn't study this much for a single class I
Speaker 1: had in college.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you were going to try to make a
Speaker 2: living out.
Speaker 4: Of that, that's true.
Speaker 2: But I'm tullious. So now if you have these, you know,
Speaker 2: official workshops and tests and things for the rules, where
Speaker 2: do you what is your resource for getting over two
Speaker 2: hundred etiquette faux pause for this book? I mean it's
Speaker 2: not these aren't written down anywhere? Are they?
Speaker 4: There are etiquette rules.
Speaker 1: There are a few listed in the USGA rulebook.
Speaker 2: Very few, I gotta imagine.
Speaker 4: Yes, I think maybe a dozen or two dozen.
Speaker 1: I talked to course pros, maintenance crews, other golfers, pretty
Speaker 1: much anybody I could run into, you know, sitting around
Speaker 1: on the nineteenth hole, asking people what's your what's your
Speaker 1: biggest pet peeve? And doing some online research.
Speaker 2: And how many of those pet peeves did not end
Speaker 2: up in the book.
Speaker 1: I think I had a couple dozen that I really
Speaker 1: didn't get in there.
Speaker 2: Like what sure I could have? You know, I dig this,
Speaker 2: I did this see you last time?
Speaker 4: And you know.
Speaker 1: It's funny because I had b If you would, that's fine.
Speaker 2: You need to take it. You need to study. From
Speaker 2: my interview.
Speaker 4: To answer your question.
Speaker 1: One that I really was a little upset about not
Speaker 1: putting in there are the little flags that are marked
Speaker 1: ground under repair. You know, sometimes you see fifteen little
Speaker 1: yellow flags, know about a foot tall. That was something
Speaker 1: that I didn't get in. I do have ground under
Speaker 1: repair listed, but not that specific instance. And that was
Speaker 1: something that I don't know just tickled my fancy and
Speaker 1: wish I would have put in there. And it's but
Speaker 1: it's funny you should say what's not in there? Because
Speaker 1: I had one bad review on Amazon and this individual
Speaker 1: gave me a three out of five stars and said,
Speaker 1: I wish there was more on out of Bounds.
Speaker 4: Well, I think there was enough.
Speaker 1: In there, but I checked to see and this individual
Speaker 1: had also rated Butch Harmon's latest release the same score,
Speaker 1: So I guess.
Speaker 4: I can't feel bad. Even though he didn't give me
Speaker 4: a five.
Speaker 1: He rated me the same as Butch Harmon's.
Speaker 2: Oh pretty good.
Speaker 4: It's nice class to be it.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you. The review thing is always fun, but
Speaker 2: it gets dangerous because you start like reading it and
Speaker 2: then taking it seriously and then taking it personally. I
Speaker 2: do that in the iTunes reviews, and if anybody wants
Speaker 2: to write an iTunes review. I'm not going to stop them.
Speaker 2: I would love to get but I make sure it's
Speaker 2: an honest review. Please please, and please, Richard, please ask
Speaker 2: people go do a review of iTunes of golf Smarter
Speaker 2: and iTunes. We haven't had one in a while anyway,
Speaker 2: So are they Okay? I'm just going to ask you
Speaker 2: various etiquete rules because this actually came up this weekend
Speaker 2: on my round. Are there etiquette rules for a hole
Speaker 2: in one?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: I have not heard any. Oh dude, did you have
Speaker 4: a hole in one? Okay?
Speaker 2: I did not, nor did anybody my foresome but he
Speaker 2: came off lee close. We think it hit the stick
Speaker 2: and it landed like four inches from the cup, which
Speaker 2: was awesome.
Speaker 1: So are you're saying that you could carry on too
Speaker 1: much if you get a hole in one and that's
Speaker 1: a faux pop? Well?
Speaker 2: What what is the the correct procedure after a person
Speaker 2: gets a hole in one and the round is over?
Speaker 2: What is correct? What is the accepted etiquette rule of
Speaker 2: what happens in the clubhouse afterwards?
Speaker 1: I think that one is so such a small percentage
Speaker 1: of people to get that.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't have any research on that one.
Speaker 2: But research you ask people question's what business you off
Speaker 2: I would say for that one, there's you know, anything goes.
Speaker 1: Everybody should promote that one, and you know you should
Speaker 1: get drinks all around, maybe even a nice steak dinner afterwards. Well,
Speaker 1: I do know there's a website dedicated to hole in
Speaker 1: ones and you mark down where you were playing the
Speaker 1: conditions of that particular hole in your name and nice.
Speaker 2: Actually, there's a lot of websites about holding ones. I've
Speaker 2: done it once. I've gotten a hole in one once,
Speaker 2: and I have a certificate from the PGA that has
Speaker 2: my name on it saying I got a hole in one.
Speaker 2: I have a yeah, they said, I have a like
Speaker 2: a bag tag that says I've gotten a hole in one.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: There's lots of things you can get, lots of goodies
Speaker 2: that says that's it. But you have to you have
Speaker 2: to give them some sort of proof. But I've heard
Speaker 2: everything from you buy everybody in your forsome a drink afterward,
Speaker 2: and all the way to you by everybody in the
Speaker 2: clubhouse or in the bar at the clubhouse. At the
Speaker 2: nineteenth hole. You have to buy everybody drinks until the
Speaker 2: last person standing. I mean, that's a wide range of
Speaker 2: what you got to do.
Speaker 1: Those sound like rules made by people that are looking
Speaker 1: for free drinks.
Speaker 2: Well, golfers are not in that group, are you kidding?
Speaker 2: Who doesn't like a free anything exactly? I mean, how
Speaker 2: many times guys go around looking for golf balls? Oh,
Speaker 2: I found the ball? Yeah, so, but we're waiting.
Speaker 4: That's in the book too.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about that one about looking about what it
Speaker 2: means to just go hunting for balls during the round,
Speaker 2: even if you haven't lost yours. What's the proper etiquette
Speaker 2: for that?
Speaker 1: One thing most important is don't hold up anybody behind
Speaker 1: you or your group.
Speaker 4: Yep, that's probably the biggest pah.
Speaker 1: You know. Granted, if you see somebody coming up out
Speaker 1: of the marsh and they've got a duffel that they
Speaker 1: found four dozen, it's you just kind of have to wonder.
Speaker 1: And especially we know most of those balls aren't really playable,
Speaker 1: so the speed of play on that one is it's
Speaker 1: probably the biggest point to take home when you're talking
Speaker 1: about etiquette too. You can use it to make your
Speaker 1: game more enjoyable even before you take your first swing,
Speaker 1: especially if you're with it. Teamed up with somebody you
Speaker 1: haven't played with before. Of course, you know, you go
Speaker 1: through the introductions and I always write down the other
Speaker 1: player's names, you know, in the corner of the scorecard somewhere,
Speaker 1: so that you know, the third hole when I need
Speaker 1: Jim to move, I remember his name, at least it's
Speaker 1: a fifty to fifty chance, as do I.
Speaker 2: I try, because I'm not good with names. Bob and
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Richard and I am And I also like
Speaker 2: try write down, like what cap he's wearing, because I
Speaker 2: hate getting him wrong. I can't just write Tom and Bill,
Speaker 2: all right, Tom white cap, Oh, okay, that's Tom.
Speaker 1: Those are good ones too. Yeah, and then also mention
Speaker 1: your golfing ability, your handicap where you like to hit
Speaker 1: from rather than being on the second hole and you're
Speaker 1: in the woods, and the rest of your players are
Speaker 1: starting to pull their hair out because now they realize
Speaker 1: we thought we were going to play a speedy par
Speaker 1: around and we've got mister triple bogie over here. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But what choice do you have. I mean, if you
Speaker 2: go to the you go to the first t and
Speaker 2: the starter says you're twosome is team this? You got
Speaker 2: a single here, in a single here that's playing with you.
Speaker 2: You walk up to and say, hey, how's your game?
Speaker 2: I'm not so sure I agree with you on this one.
Speaker 2: It's like, Hi, how are you? And then you just
Speaker 2: have to be patient. But you can't tell the starter
Speaker 2: this guy sucks. I don't want to play with him.
Speaker 1: Well, I've seen that done too. Really, wouldn't you rather
Speaker 1: know before the round starts that it's going to be
Speaker 1: slow and you, and knowing his inability, you can guide
Speaker 1: him a little more, you know, maybe he tell him,
Speaker 1: don't be hitting from the blues, let's scoot you up
Speaker 1: a little bit, or help watch his shot a little more.
Speaker 1: You know. That's another great pace of play item in
Speaker 1: the book. You've got this threesome and one guy hits
Speaker 1: in the woods and he turns to the other one
Speaker 1: and says, did you see where it landed? And the
Speaker 1: snotty character says, it's not my ball. I wasn't watching it.
Speaker 1: But then the second person hits, puts his ball in
Speaker 1: the woods and he says, anybody see where it landed.
Speaker 1: First guy says, yes, it's at the third tree at
Speaker 1: the base, And it just saves lots of time from
Speaker 1: having to look around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, no question about it.
Speaker 1: I just I I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, I've not well. The first thing I never
Speaker 2: want to do is tell people how they should be playing.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't even I generally don't bring up
Speaker 2: the podcast until the seventeenth hole. I don't because it's like,
Speaker 2: I don't want to, I don't want to talk about
Speaker 2: me on this thing, and I just like, maybe I'm
Speaker 2: going to have a potentially new listener, so I want
Speaker 2: to bring it up at some point, and I generally
Speaker 2: just say there's a difference. Have you ever heard of
Speaker 2: a podcast? But telling people like, you know, like what
Speaker 2: where they should play? You want to play the fronts,
Speaker 2: go ahead, I'm going to play the blues today, or
Speaker 2: you know, I'm going to play the whites.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not saying you should tell them, but you can,
Speaker 1: especially if somebody's breaking some major etiquette or even the rules,
Speaker 1: you might want to just mention to them, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: that was a nice shot, but this is how it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be played. The concept that you know, started
Speaker 1: these the books is that most people haven't had any
Speaker 1: thorough education.
Speaker 2: Exposure, let's just call it exposure.
Speaker 4: Not okay, yeah, and for.
Speaker 1: That individual, let's just say he was breaking an etiquette
Speaker 1: and you didn't say anything. Well, golf is a cradle
Speaker 1: to grave sport, as you know, so he could repeat
Speaker 1: that same error for the next fifty years.
Speaker 2: He couldn't feel responsible for that.
Speaker 1: You know what, I think for the good of the game,
Speaker 1: we all have some citizen responsibility that you know. In
Speaker 1: addition to you know, him doing it wrong for fifty years,
Speaker 1: he might turn somebody off to the game. You know,
Speaker 1: they might think that what this player was doing is
Speaker 1: standard and don't want to have anything to do with golf,
Speaker 1: or that person will teach others. You know. It's it's
Speaker 1: like the spam email. As long as you keep forwarding
Speaker 1: the chain mail, it keeps going. But if you stop it,
Speaker 1: nobody has to have their inbox flooded and there are
Speaker 1: You're right, it can be a difficult situation, you know,
Speaker 1: as you were saying, if you've got somebody new, how
Speaker 1: many times have we just thought the guys are putts?
Speaker 1: But in three hours I don't have to deal with
Speaker 1: them again. But there's an opportunity there to help his life,
Speaker 1: possibly his game be better, and everybody he touches thereafter,
Speaker 1: who cares if you insult him?
Speaker 4: You know, some things need.
Speaker 1: To be done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and again to me, it's like, are we
Speaker 2: playing for money today? And are you in? If you're in,
Speaker 2: then okay, let's all agree on these etiquette rules and
Speaker 2: all the real rules. But otherwise they do what you want.
Speaker 2: I'm from California, man, We're all about doing what you want,
Speaker 2: and I'm not country club. Are there a list of
Speaker 2: rules in your book for etiquette rules for marshals?
Speaker 4: Marshals?
Speaker 1: We do have a couple listed in there. They're not
Speaker 1: for marshals to behave. But I know that's a hot
Speaker 1: button for you.
Speaker 2: Ooh boy, oh boy, you know because you mentioned. But
Speaker 2: it's like, okay, keep an eye on where the ball goes,
Speaker 2: so you watch and you can help pick up the
Speaker 2: pace of play. Why aren't the marshals doing if they're
Speaker 2: just driving around in circles doing nothing Telegate except telling
Speaker 2: you that you're going too slow, Well that's because I
Speaker 2: lost my ball. Oh man, they make me creazy.
Speaker 1: Well, you know that might go back to being educated
Speaker 1: and experienced from somebody else that doesn't know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: You know, I assume some of these marshals may not
Speaker 1: have been through USGAPGA rules school. They might be older
Speaker 1: golfers that can't really play as much, so they're trying
Speaker 1: to help.
Speaker 2: What are common etiquette faux pas that really irk you?
Speaker 1: For me, the mulligan and hitting right away, which you
Speaker 1: can kind of roll in together. So many every golfer
Speaker 1: knows what a mulligan is, despite there being no mention
Speaker 1: of a mulligan in the rule book. You know everybody
Speaker 1: wants to hit again, Well guess what you get. You
Speaker 1: do get to hit again, but you count your first
Speaker 1: stroke and count your second stroke as a penalty stroke.
Speaker 1: To me, the it mirrors. Let's say you're playing Monopoly
Speaker 1: and you land on go directly to jail. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine turning to the person on your left and saying,
Speaker 1: I'm going to roll again. Let's not count that.
Speaker 2: I love that idea, it's just what it is. Or
Speaker 2: I'm going to try that next time I play Monopoly.
Speaker 2: Can I get a mulligan on that roll? Some are
Speaker 2: the crap table, even just the craft table. You're playing.
Speaker 1: A little backarrack. Some people say, well, you know what,
Speaker 1: everybody gets a mulligan in our group, Well, why don't
Speaker 1: you just count the stroke and add four onto everybody's
Speaker 1: or three onto everybody's game.
Speaker 4: It's about the same, right If.
Speaker 1: It bothers you that much to card a ninety five
Speaker 1: versus a ninety one, get lessons. It's not about the score.
Speaker 1: And I read recently Ben Hogan said before every round
Speaker 1: he knew he was gonna have four bad shots. Okay,
Speaker 1: now this is a professional, so I kind of go
Speaker 1: out thinking I'm gonna have four good shots, and it
Speaker 1: just is what it is. When I first started playing
Speaker 1: by the rules, my scores went up dramastically, but I
Speaker 1: knew at the end of the day that that was
Speaker 1: my true score, and I could tell people that with
Speaker 1: accuracy and not be ashamed because that is what I shot.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make me any less of a golfer or
Speaker 1: any better golfer by saying you shot something lower. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of one of my pet peeves about that.
Speaker 1: But and then again for those that take them or
Speaker 1: I guess you have to hit anyhow, some people drop
Speaker 1: a ball immediately and just hit right away. Well, the rules, actually,
Speaker 1: the rule book says you go to the back of
Speaker 1: the line. You don't hit right away, unless, of course,
Speaker 1: you're the last one teeing off, We'll say we're in
Speaker 1: the t box.
Speaker 4: So if you're first, and you put yours in the woods.
Speaker 1: Pick up your tea, walk back to the bag, let
Speaker 1: the other three players play, and then you can hit
Speaker 1: your provisional.
Speaker 2: Oh as opposed to your provision, as opposed to just
Speaker 2: dropping the ball immediately or even recognizing you know that
Speaker 2: ball you just hit out of bounds, you can drop
Speaker 2: it over there. It's a lateral hazard, right.
Speaker 1: A lateral water hazard. We you know this. This summer,
Speaker 1: I was walking the dog and contemplating lateral water has
Speaker 1: as I'm sure you do too.
Speaker 2: No, I listen to podcasts when I'm walking the dog.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking about red steaks, and I glance up
Speaker 1: and I see a red stop sign, and this is
Speaker 1: how my mind works. I'm thinking, Okay, what are the
Speaker 1: options at a stop sign? Well, they mirror the options
Speaker 1: for a lateral water hazard red stakes when your water
Speaker 1: your ball goes in. So here we go, Fred. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to put it on you for a second.
Speaker 1: When you're at a stop when you're at an intersection,
Speaker 1: four way intersection, you have to stop sign. You have
Speaker 1: five options. What are they.
Speaker 2: Five options at a four way stop sign.
Speaker 4: Yes, now this isn't difficult.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The first one is stop, the second one is go
Speaker 2: through it. Third one would be kind of rolling stop.
Speaker 1: Okay, no, no, no, no, I'm wrong. Huh. All right, if
Speaker 1: you're stopped at a red st yes, you can stay there,
Speaker 1: turn left, turn right. Oh those options, those options go forward,
Speaker 1: the legal options again, we're you know the rules. Or
Speaker 1: you could put the car and revers or turn around
Speaker 1: and go back. Those are exactly the same options you
Speaker 1: have when your ball goes into a ladder of water hazard.
Speaker 1: So now nobody has to ever wonder what can I
Speaker 1: do when my ball goes in the water on those
Speaker 1: red steaks. So again we'll just kind of say it.
Speaker 1: You can stay there and play the ball as it lies,
Speaker 1: because not always is the ball actually submerged if you're
Speaker 1: in a water hazard.
Speaker 2: But wait, so, like I played this weekend up in
Speaker 2: Sonoma in a winery area and there's winery like right
Speaker 2: in the middle of a golf course and it's red staked,
Speaker 2: and they don't want you to go into where the
Speaker 2: where the grapes are growing. But my ball just kind
Speaker 2: of like inched by the red steak and I had
Speaker 2: I had somewhat which I could punch it back out.
Speaker 2: You're saying, because it's a red steak, I still can
Speaker 2: hit it. I don't have to immediately take the penalty.
Speaker 4: Yes, you do not.
Speaker 1: You do not have to. You can play the ball
Speaker 1: as July. A matter of fact, we're talking about PGA
Speaker 1: rules school. The gentleman sitting next to me the past
Speaker 1: couple of years is on the not the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: is on the Golf Channel Tour, and we were going
Speaker 1: over a rule about the wall ball being in a
Speaker 1: water hazard and oscillating. Basically, the waves were coming up
Speaker 1: the ripples just enough to move keep moving the ball
Speaker 1: back and forth. And of course, you know you read
Speaker 1: about these crazy things and you wonder what the option,
Speaker 1: how often this happens? And of course he's like, I
Speaker 1: had that happen to me, and I played it. So
Speaker 1: even when your ball and we've seen this, when your
Speaker 1: ball's in the water, you've seen it on a Sunday,
Speaker 1: you can hit out of there. Raised Creek at Augusta
Speaker 1: is a big example. Your ball's wet and these pros
Speaker 1: can hit out of the water. It's only what twenty
Speaker 1: feet straight up onto a nice soft landing, so you
Speaker 1: can play it as it lies, even if it's in
Speaker 1: the water. It might be a difficult shot for most,
Speaker 1: but you've got that one. Talk about going backwards. That
Speaker 1: means you can go back to where you last hit
Speaker 1: it taking your penalty stroke. When I say left and right,
Speaker 1: it depends on what side the water is on. Sure,
Speaker 1: but you drop the ball on its where it crossed
Speaker 1: the margin in the air, not where it splashed, but
Speaker 1: where it crossed the margin of the water hazard. You
Speaker 1: can drop it to the left. You can drop it
Speaker 1: on the other side of the water hazard, equal distance
Speaker 1: from the flag. So there's your left and write the
Speaker 1: forward is dropping on a line from where it crossed
Speaker 1: the water hazard with the flag stick is kind of
Speaker 1: as far back as you want, so it's a it's
Speaker 1: a little bit forward and back. You're looking forward to
Speaker 1: get the line, but you drop it behind where it's
Speaker 1: across the water hazard. Okay, so I've written an article
Speaker 1: that basically explains what I just stated. I hope to
Speaker 1: have that on my website in the next week or so,
Speaker 1: maybe before you present this, so you can go to
Speaker 1: the golf rules dot Com A little free article just
Speaker 1: to kind of help educate on lateral water hazards because
Speaker 1: those are difficult.
Speaker 2: Awesome, And it's the golf rules dot com. Correct three words,
Speaker 2: all one word, the golf rules. Okay, great, great, great, okay,
Speaker 2: Mulligan's irk you what's what is the correct way to
Speaker 2: handle hitting a provisional? So it's like, oh, you have
Speaker 2: to announce it correct like you hit a ball. You
Speaker 2: hit a ball and you're not sure it's out of bounds.
Speaker 2: You can't really see over there or went over herell
Speaker 2: or you just you can't tell. And he's like, you
Speaker 2: know what, I better hit a second ball just in case, right.
Speaker 4: And and that's a very good point.
Speaker 1: You don't have to know that it's lost to hit
Speaker 1: a provisional. And you do exactly as you say. You
Speaker 1: announce that you're going to hit one. If again, go
Speaker 1: back in your turn in line. You know, hit right away.
Speaker 1: You know everybody's already waiting. Let them go unless you're
Speaker 1: the last person. Go look for your first ball first.
Speaker 1: If you find that, that's what you play. If not,
Speaker 1: you play your provisional, counting your first stroke and your penalty.
Speaker 2: Right, So when you're hitting your provisional you're hitting three,
Speaker 2: if you're hitting off two, yes, okay, what about still
Speaker 2: people still get really cranky about you walked on my line.
Speaker 2: Now we've got shoes that don't make marks, they don't
Speaker 2: make much impressions. Well, in California right now because of
Speaker 2: our drought situation, the greens are fast, rock hard and
Speaker 2: fast and I and they keep the grass so short.
Speaker 2: On most greens, you really aren't making any marks. That's
Speaker 2: gonna divert their ball. But I know you shouldn't step
Speaker 2: on it. But it's like relax, well.
Speaker 1: But like you were saying, you shouldn't step on it,
Speaker 1: So just don't do it. I mean, granted, if you
Speaker 1: have an accident, that's different than on every hole Joe
Speaker 1: walks across my line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well mostly the ones that are the It's like
Speaker 2: if you walk on because you didn't see where the
Speaker 2: guys you know, his marker was on the green, it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm really sorry. But if you're putting out and you
Speaker 2: know you you've got to walk up to your you know,
Speaker 2: you tap in or you're gimme if they're gonna do that,
Speaker 2: I know I just made you freak out by something. Gimmy,
Speaker 2: But it's like, that's where you're gonna step. It's like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, And then what happens is you take that
Speaker 2: big step to get over right. It's like, oh, I
Speaker 2: don't want to step on your line, so I'm gonna
Speaker 2: take this big step. And what ends up happening is
Speaker 2: you're you're just like you're putting, your line is off,
Speaker 2: and when you take your big step, you land right
Speaker 2: on his line or someone else's line right, and then
Speaker 2: you make your the impression in the ground because you
Speaker 2: jumped over.
Speaker 4: And right.
Speaker 1: It's we're not professionals, most of us, so it's not
Speaker 1: gonna make a big difference if you go over, but
Speaker 1: it could. And if it does and you watch somebody's
Speaker 1: putt head and right for the cup and it drops
Speaker 1: into where you just stood and goes off to the left,
Speaker 1: you know you're you're going to get some comments. I'm sure.
Speaker 1: No h So it's a lot a lot easier just
Speaker 1: to not walk across the line and not have to
Speaker 1: worry about it, even if it doesn't make it or
Speaker 1: you may you may not have made any impression. But
Speaker 1: if that ball for some reason doesn't go where was
Speaker 1: supposed to, you're going to get blamed.
Speaker 2: In your research asking people what bugs you? What was
Speaker 2: the most common faux pad that that came out?
Speaker 4: Speed of play seemed to be the biggest.
Speaker 1: And uh and.
Speaker 2: What do they what do they blame? Blame that on
Speaker 2: crappy players or marshals who aren't paying attention.
Speaker 4: I think mostly crappy players, is uh.
Speaker 2: See, that's a problem. We shouldn't get testy about about
Speaker 2: people who are new to the game because there aren't
Speaker 2: that many anymore that are new to the game, and
Speaker 2: we're trying to encourage them. So don't be pissy.
Speaker 1: There's a little there's a fine line and you can
Speaker 1: kind of go both ways if you're just starting, you know, again,
Speaker 1: as we're saying, maybe you shouldn't be playing far back,
Speaker 1: play up a little bit, or you can. You know,
Speaker 1: the USGA has their equitable stroke control, which growing up,
Speaker 1: you know, I remember being taught double par you know,
Speaker 1: and after that you picked up your ball and that
Speaker 1: kind of kept the pace going for everybody, was it?
Speaker 1: Hamenez just this last week carted a thirteen on a
Speaker 1: par four.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, but that's a tournament. I mean, I understand,
Speaker 2: but if you carry a handicap if you carry a handicap,
Speaker 2: and most people, you know, I guess who even listening
Speaker 2: to this, But you're carrying a handicap or you're preparing
Speaker 2: to get a handicap for yourself, there is a number
Speaker 2: that you can't go over on the scorecard. I can't
Speaker 2: take more than the seven, right, so I never do.
Speaker 4: Actually I don't. The number isn't fixed.
Speaker 1: I believe it's as we're going, it's you know, double
Speaker 1: bogie or triple bogie, depending on your your your.
Speaker 4: Handicap, because of course you can take more than a.
Speaker 1: Seven on a par five, but on a par three
Speaker 1: not so much, right, because you're a nine point something. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it changed this the last time I heard the podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it changes every two weeks. And now I'm
Speaker 2: nine to two, which and you.
Speaker 1: Know, I just played a couple of weeks ago by myself,
Speaker 1: and I finished my round in an hour and ten
Speaker 1: granted well nine holes, I was. I was a little
Speaker 1: winded by the time I finished. There was one other
Speaker 1: person on the course behind me about a hole and
Speaker 1: a half. Now, if he had there's I'm sorry, we're
Speaker 1: leading into another pet peeve. If he was playing faster
Speaker 1: than me, you know maybe he had running shoes.
Speaker 4: I would have let him come through.
Speaker 1: Sure, of course, you know that that's and you know
Speaker 1: it's such an ego for everybody that you know, whether
Speaker 1: somebody plays through us. Most golfers don't have a problem
Speaker 1: with playing through another group. But nope, they don't want
Speaker 1: anybody playing through them. It's true, and it has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with your manlyhood or how well you golf.
Speaker 1: It's just a fact. If the person behind you is
Speaker 1: playing faster and there's nobody in front of you, let
Speaker 1: them go.
Speaker 2: But do you let him go and you wait for
Speaker 2: a par three? You let him go anytime?
Speaker 4: It depends on the course.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a little more difficult if you're in
Speaker 1: the middle of a hole, unless you know, maybe everybody's
Speaker 1: approach shots went wide into the woods. Now you got
Speaker 1: some time and I've done both. You know, you wait
Speaker 1: till for a par three go through. Personally, I almost
Speaker 1: feel it it's more difficult because if everybody is on
Speaker 1: the green, they're waiting for you to hit on, walk
Speaker 1: up and put out. It seems like that takes longer
Speaker 1: than if they're a stroke behind you on a par
Speaker 1: five where they just hit right through you and you'll
Speaker 1: be done.
Speaker 4: But that's just me.
Speaker 2: No, No, that's a good point because I think that
Speaker 2: any time I've ever asked, like, you guys want to
Speaker 2: play through, it's always been on a par three. But
Speaker 2: you're right, that actually does slow things down. It's better
Speaker 2: to do on a par four or part five.
Speaker 1: There was a I think it was the History Channel
Speaker 1: had a real interesting article where they timed all the
Speaker 1: golfers coming through and they were showing how the bottleneck
Speaker 1: being at the par threes. You've as you know, you
Speaker 1: generally pay you out about what every you know, nine
Speaker 1: eleven minutes, depending on how crowd of the course is. Well,
Speaker 1: if it takes longer than that to play that hole,
Speaker 1: then everybody backs up there and it backs up all
Speaker 1: day long. So it's an interesting thought process as opposed
Speaker 1: to sending on everybody out evenly, because you're not going
Speaker 1: to be even once you get through that first hole.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: But I think that gets back down to, you know,
Speaker 1: dollars and cents for the course.
Speaker 2: I think the other reason that it works for people
Speaker 2: to let someone play through on a par three is
Speaker 2: because you can mark your ball, you can get it
Speaker 2: out of the way where on a fair way people
Speaker 2: aren't going to be picking up their ball and they're
Speaker 2: not sure that's a bad excuse. Okay, no, I like
Speaker 2: this idea. Yeah, no, no, I think that's good. That's good. Wow,
Speaker 2: you have over two hundred BETI good folkus I.
Speaker 4: Think I think it's two hundred and forty three?
Speaker 1: Is the count in that book?
Speaker 2: You are such a spreadsheet, not two and forty three?
Speaker 4: I had to know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because guys like me and go, so how
Speaker 2: many you got in here? Well, it's on the cover.
Speaker 1: It says over too, and saying over two two and
Speaker 1: forty just doesn't have the same ring. So and I
Speaker 1: didn't quite pump it up to two fifties, so I
Speaker 1: just let it go.
Speaker 2: So fixing fixing ball marks on the green and raking bunkers,
Speaker 2: is that a rule or is that etiquette?
Speaker 4: That is etiquette. I don't believe there's any rule.
Speaker 1: Now, there's some guidance on Well, there are some rules
Speaker 1: about raking, yep, you know how when you do it.
Speaker 2: But doesn't every every course have their own rule of
Speaker 2: where you leave the rake?
Speaker 1: Or yeah, yeah, there are a lot of local rules.
Speaker 1: There seems to be a one overwhelming rule or guideline
Speaker 1: is that the rake is always perpendicular with the fairway.
Speaker 2: Oh, I've never heard that. And there's a video at
Speaker 2: golf smarter dot com on our golf Smarter TV that
Speaker 2: I recently did for the country club here Marine country
Speaker 2: Club on course care pace of play, and their rule
Speaker 2: is always put the rake with the handle sticking out.
Speaker 2: Put the you know, the head in the sand and
Speaker 2: the handle sticking out. But they didn't say anything about, uh,
Speaker 2: the direction of the.
Speaker 1: Fairway is that with the whole rake in the bunker.
Speaker 2: No, just the handle sticking out of the edge of
Speaker 2: the bunker. Okay, But they didn't say anything about it
Speaker 2: should be in the same direction as the way of play.
Speaker 1: I think the concept is if your ball is heading
Speaker 1: towards the flag and the rake is going the same way,
Speaker 1: you have a less less chance of the ball being stopped,
Speaker 1: as opposed to if you know the rake is at
Speaker 1: ninety degrees to the flag you hit it, it's just
Speaker 1: going to stop, as opposed if it's going the same way,
Speaker 1: you're just going to roll with it.
Speaker 2: Fun stuff, fun stuff, fun book, fun book. Did you
Speaker 2: do eighteen chapter? You did eighteen chapters? Again? On this
Speaker 2: right nineteen.
Speaker 1: Actually I went a little went past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you doing a little farther this.
Speaker 1: I got a paragraph for twenty. But well, this one's
Speaker 1: a real interesting storyline. It was funny again at an
Speaker 1: author event, I was talking to a person. She had
Speaker 1: lost her sister to breast cancer. So they started an
Speaker 1: annual breast cancer awareness golf outing and they're in about
Speaker 1: their ninth ninth year. It's kind of the story behind
Speaker 1: the story in the book. A municipal golfer wins a
Speaker 1: round of golf at a local country club for a charity,
Speaker 1: and so it was kind of fun here in her
Speaker 1: story because it mirrored what I had already written. Golf.
Speaker 1: You know, as we know, it's it's not just a
Speaker 1: game of moving the ball from one area to another.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a way of life. It gives to
Speaker 1: the community, it can help sick people. You can golf
Speaker 1: with somebody you don't speak the same language, and managed
Speaker 1: to spend four six hours with somebody, And it's okay,
Speaker 1: uh to that. I've started writing a golf manifesto of
Speaker 1: everything that golf is.
Speaker 4: So wow, I will it's.
Speaker 2: Going to be thicker than this book. I have a
Speaker 2: sense and that could be something I'm writing the rest
Speaker 2: of your life, right it could yeah, yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 2: you have you have other things, I mean from you
Speaker 2: were telling me that all these you know, when you
Speaker 2: go out and do these author talks and you meet
Speaker 2: people and you do your research, You've got a lot
Speaker 2: of other stories that you've been compiling.
Speaker 1: I do some of these stories that people tell everybody
Speaker 1: has a golf story, it seems like, and some are
Speaker 1: better than others.
Speaker 4: So I've taked some.
Speaker 1: Are clean, yeah, I And so I've put those together
Speaker 1: and I'm doing a book of short stories and ring
Speaker 1: the writing of this, which I know will take just
Speaker 1: historically it's going to take at least a year, if
Speaker 1: not several, to put together the whole thing. I've started
Speaker 1: publishing like five chapters at a time as an ebook.
Speaker 1: It's in the Kindle market for ninety nine cents.
Speaker 4: It's called Short Stories from.
Speaker 1: The Long Links. So if you're looking for something a
Speaker 1: little more lighthearted, check that out.
Speaker 2: For ninety nine cents, why the heck not? And I
Speaker 2: will make sure that the link to that and the
Speaker 2: link to golf rules Etiquette, those are both on Amazon,
Speaker 2: right all your boy, Yes, yeah, And I'll make sure
Speaker 2: that there are links to that at golf smarter dot com.
Speaker 1: Great, and the first book, The Golf Rules on Stroke Play,
Speaker 1: is in some select Barnes and Nobles.
Speaker 4: It was quite a thrill. I walked into the store.
Speaker 1: Actually, I was doing an author event just outside of
Speaker 1: Barnes and Nobles at another store, and my wife texted
Speaker 1: me she was in the store. She says, Hey, your
Speaker 1: book's on the shelf.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Very cool culture.
Speaker 2: I actually was interviewed for a book that somebody was writing,
Speaker 2: and when she wrote to us and said the book
Speaker 2: is it's out, It's in the store. My wife and
Speaker 2: I ran to the store and there was that thrill
Speaker 2: of finding, you know, not just my name in the book,
Speaker 2: but there was a chapter on me. It's like, what nice? No,
Speaker 2: it's not. It's not a pleasant thing. Different topic, different podcasts. Okay,
Speaker 2: So to wrap this up, tell me how people can
Speaker 2: find your stuff online and how they can find you
Speaker 2: and write to you if they need to.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, of course, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, men, a few
Speaker 1: select golf specialty stores online and brick and mortar have
Speaker 1: the website the golf roles dot com, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
Speaker 1: and I have a blog out at WordPress, all of
Speaker 1: which you can get to from my website.
Speaker 2: Also, what are you doing on YouTube?
Speaker 1: I put together a kind of like a book trailer
Speaker 1: for the first book, So Much, So Much fun. A
Speaker 1: friend of mine, he actually is a NASA engineer that
Speaker 1: likes to dabble in video. And so I called up
Speaker 1: the local course and said, I've got this book. I'd
Speaker 1: like to stop by and you know, do some filming,
Speaker 1: and he said sure. So we showed up and he
Speaker 1: gave us keys to the cart and it was.
Speaker 4: A fall day.
Speaker 1: Well that's about a year ago, and we basically had
Speaker 1: the course to ourselves. We just drove around and took
Speaker 1: video here and different swings and you know, dropping balls
Speaker 1: and water and sand and of course we had to
Speaker 1: play a couple of the part threes, but we just
Speaker 1: drove around and it was it was amazing. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: as opposed to the structured walking through the eighteen holes,
Speaker 1: we just went wherever we wanted.
Speaker 2: Willy Nilly, Well, again, thank you so much for writing
Speaker 2: this book. And I think people should have this and
Speaker 2: your other one on their shelves for no other reason.
Speaker 2: Then it's a reference. It's a reference source, and you
Speaker 2: can just like, wait a minute, there is a rule
Speaker 2: for that, or there's a thought for that. Let me
Speaker 2: go find that, and here's where you do it. And
Speaker 2: they're not thick books. And the thing that I do
Speaker 2: love about your books is that they're stories. It's not
Speaker 2: just you know, very dry USGA type legalies. These are stories.
Speaker 2: As you say, it's learn the rules by watching others
Speaker 2: make mistakes. It's awesome and congratulations and thank you again
Speaker 2: for your support of golf Smarter.
Speaker 4: Oh you're welcome.
Speaker 1: And of course they make great Christmas grifts if you want,
Speaker 1: I can do personalizations. I love hearing from people that
Speaker 1: have given them as gifts, you know, I hear. Hey,
Speaker 1: Uncle Bill went to open the book and he saw
Speaker 1: that you mentioned his Thursday round of golf, and he
Speaker 1: was just amazed that you knew he played golf on Thursday.
Speaker 2: Wonder then you run again